Camosun College\u2019s second president, Lloyd Morin, was with the college when it first opened its doors to students in 1971. Starting as the director of Instructional Development and Institutional Research, he helped plan course outlines and develop programs such as Criminal Justice and the now-defunct Applied Communications Program. After the first president\u2014or, as the position was called then, principal\u2014Grant Fisher, left the college for the Ministry of Advanced Education, Morin applied for the president position and was appointed in 1979. His decade-long presidency had him guiding the college through the recession of the \u201980s, and he had to make decisions that sound very similar to ones the college still deals with today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a phone call to come to a meeting halfway through the fiscal year,\u201d he remembers. \u201cWe were told to reduce all of our budgets mid-term, and that is very difficult to do when you have people under contract, and such a large percentage of budget went into salaries, but those were the days we were in. They were very stringent financial times; we had to look at every dollar twice.\u201d<\/p>\n At 82 years old, Morin is the oldest ex-Camosun president; while he misses \u201cthe challenges and the relationships\u201d at Camosun, he says he\u2019s enjoyed retirement.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I do in retirement changes as years go by, but right now I seem to be mostly involved with family, other activities, church activities, puttering around in the yard. I have other projects that I work away at,\u201d he says. \u201cIn my early retirement years, I did a lot of contract work. I\u2019m not doing that now, but I worked for the [BC] Council on Admissions and Transfer [BCCAT] for quite a bit. Now, at my age, I don\u2019t do that as much; I just kind of take care of things around here.\u201d<\/p>\n Morin says that one noticeable change during his presidency was the formation of the Nursing program. At that time, nursing had always been in the hospital schools, but they were phasing it out, he says. Lots of time was spent working with the people from those schools, says Morin, and then hiring Thelma Brown to head up the college\u2019s Nursing program.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a big initiative because it required staff, it required labs, and it required money. At that time, there were three councils that controlled our budgets; one was the Academic Council. They wanted us to start the Nursing program, but it was difficult to get a commitment to the money to make it happen,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cAnd so we kind of held off until we were able to get commitment that there would be funding there for it. It\u2019s been a really successful program; it was very well done.\u201d<\/p>\n Morin doesn\u2019t consider his presidency a one-man show. He says he had a \u201csuperb\u201d group of senior administrators who all went on to have great careers elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThese were just exceptional people, and I was so fortunate to have that sort of team to work with; that\u2019s really what made my decade there most enjoyable. You can\u2019t do it on your own. These men\u2014as it turns out, they were mostly men at the time\u2014were totally committed to their jobs. They worked very hard, they were very intelligent\u2014I was just really lucky to get people like that. All I had to do was show up,\u201d he chuckles.<\/p>\n While doing contract work with the BCCAT after his time at the college, Morin would chair committees and write discussion papers on various topics. One notable example was on Prior Learning Assessment, a service used by most BC colleges to identify what skills people have learned in a non-post-secondary setting.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, we did a lot of work on that,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had a provincial committee. It took a while to get going, and it\u2019s kind of become an accepted part of the system.\u201d<\/p>\n Between periods of contract work for the BCCAT, Morin briefly served as president of Douglas College, helping them out through some tough times.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, every college goes through those periods,\u201d he says. \u201cRight now it seems to be a high time for the colleges\u2014there seems to be lots of money, lots of growth, lots of development\u2014so it\u2019s encouraging to see. I\u2019m very impressed to see what Camosun has become since I left.\u201d<\/p>\n Morin keeps in touch with his old Camosun colleagues through the Camosun College Association of Retired Employees.<\/p>\n \u201cI still get together with many of the people in the administrative council from the 1980s that still live around here,\u201d he says. \u201cSix or seven of us get together once or twice a year just for lunch, renew acquaintances.\u201d<\/p>\n Morin has left the hustle and bustle of the presidential life behind him, but he stays busy, even while immersed in retirement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot of travelling and so on; my wife [Caroll] isn\u2019t as able to travel now as she once was, and so we probably won\u2019t do as much travelling. We enjoy following the pursuits of our grandchildren,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n As for what\u2019s next, he\u2019s taking a break from the big-picture hecticness to deal with one of the most ordinary\u2014and non-presidential\u2014tasks of all.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I need to do,\u201d he says, \u201cis sort out my pictures from all our trips.\u201d<\/p>\n LIZ ASHTON<\/strong><\/p>\n When we get together for our interview, Liz Ashton has just come back from a horse show up island. Before that, she had been to several show jumping competitions in Ontario and Alberta. Ashton\u2014who was Camosun\u2019s president from 1994 to 2009\u2014now competes in equestrian show jumping, something she did before her time at the college. While she stills follows the college, show jumping takes up all her time these days.<\/p>\n \u201cI always tried to plan on retiring early enough from the college that I would have a few years to do horses full time,\u201d says Ashton. \u201cNever in my whole life, even the years I rode in the Olympics, I never got to train or anything full time; it was always working and trying to do it on the side. I always figured maybe I\u2019d get three years competing after finishing; it\u2019s extended to eight or nine now. It\u2019s been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_4393.jpg\")
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